How companies get around having to tell people about dangerous chemicals in their products.

by Nick
(Montreal)

In a recent article by the Environmental Working Group they expose how companies are using an EPA loophole to hide the truth from their customers.

In short, companies are obliged to let the EPA know if there is a dangerous chemical in one of their products. And the EPA is then obliged to tell the public. However – and here is the loophole – companies are not obliged to say WHICH chemical they are referring to. As a result, the EPA has nothing to tell the public...and the public continues to be exposed.

Yes, it’s insane.

And there is more, as described in the EWG article:

“And here’s the best, or worst, part. EPA has allowed companies to keep the name of the harmful chemical secret even if its name and chemical identity are already public information — listed on EPA’s public inventory of some 65,000 registered chemicals. And no one, no one, has been checking to see if industry efforts to cloak its health and safety data under the veil of CBI involves chemicals on the public list. (Don’t forget that there are about 17,000 other chemicals whose identity is kept completely secret under the hopelessly inadequate Toxic Substances Control Act, which is often known by its acronym, TSCA, pronounced “tosca.”)”